Reciprocating motors and engines have the notorious disadvantage of inefficiency due to the energy wasted in reversing the direction of motion of one or more reciprocating pistons. This problem has been addressed by inventors of various forms of rotary engines using movable gate valves that define expansion chambers for a rotor. One solution is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,287, issued on Sep. 27, 1994, which is hereby incorporated into this disclosure by reference.
A rotary motor or engine with continuous unidirectional rotational rotor motion has a distinct advantage over reciprocating engines in that there is no energy wasted in changing piston direction. Such motors and engines have a drawback, however, in the difficulties that have been encountered in providing a relatively stationary surface against which expanding fluids in the firing or expansion chamber can react to drive the rotor about its rotational path. The reaction surface must be movably positioned to intersect the rotational path of a projecting lobe or land on a rotor that serves as a rotary "piston". The problem then becomes how to efficiently move the reaction surface from the path to allow passage of the "piston".
This problem is eliminated by the "Wankel" form of engine, which uses a combination of the rotor and engine block as the reaction surface. However, the bore surfaces of the engine block are nearly tangential to the piston surfaces, so the reaction forces are not ideally suited to produce maximum torque for the rotor. Even so, the "Wankel" form of engine clearly shows advantages over the reciprocating engine forms.
The present invention has for its primary objective, provision of a rotary motor or engine in which expansion forces are substantially concentrated to produce torque. All moving elements rotate continuously, thereby eliminating the need for reciprocation of the controlling valve structure.